Trucking....Should I?
Topic 3304 | Page 2
By the way, I just wanted to say again that we have the most incredible group of people here in this forum I could ever imagine finding all in one place. The time everyone takes to help others understand the challenges they're facing and the willingness to share your own thoughts and experiences is truly admirable beyond description. I can't tell you all how thankful I am for the help you give to everyone that comes through here. I've always been a loner by nature...I keep to myself and I do my own thing. But I enjoy this forum as much as anything I do in life because of the quality of the people here and the incredible conversations we have day in and day out. Seriously, bless your hearts for everything you guys and gals are doing for each other.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.
I agree 100% with you Brett, this is by far the best forum out there, it blows all of the other trucking forums out of the water. Everybody here is really friendly & share all the information they can possibly give. I will definitely stick to this forum for sure. Just a warning to everyone, being somebody looking into this industry, there will be tons more questions down the road. Thank you everyone for all the support. 
Just a warning to everyone, being somebody looking into this industry, there will be tons more questions down the road
Oh we know....and we want to hear them all! That's what we're here for. The more questions we can answer, the fewer hard lessons people will learn later on. We'd much rather teach people the easy way with a little advice than have them go out there and learn things the hard way. Getting started in trucking is hard enough even when you've done a ton of research and tried covering all of the bases. So the more questions we can answer now the better off you and everyone else reading along with us will be down the road.
Ok, like I said more questions to come. As I'm looking through the Company-Sponsered Training list, What the heck is NYC, & what does forced dispatch mean?
NYC is New York City.
Forced dispatch means that you have to accept the load that dispatch gives you. There are companies that will give you an option of different loads to take and there are companies that will allow you to refuse certain loads sometimes - like loads to NYC.
99% of the companies out there are forced dispatch. Very few companies give you any choices or tolerate a driver's refusal to haul a particular load. Once you're a proven driver for a company and you have a great relationship with your dispatcher you'll like get a little more leeway at times to say, "Hey, this load is awful. Is there any way to get something a little better?" It might work, it might not.
Dispatcher:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.
So I'm assuming hauling to NYC must really suck.
Yes, it's awful. If you've done it a few times and you're going back to the same places you've already been to it's obviously not as bad. Traffic is the main headache. But trying to find your way around the main Burroughs in a big rig is a nightmare.
DAC:
Drive-A-Check Report
A truck drivers DAC report will contain detailed information about their job history of the last 10 years as a CDL driver (as required by the DOT).
It may also contain your criminal history, drug test results, DOT infractions and accident history. The program is strictly voluntary from a company standpoint, but most of the medium-to-large carriers will participate.
Most trucking companies use DAC reports as part of their hiring and background check process. It is extremely important that drivers verify that the information contained in it is correct, and have it fixed if it's not.
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You've gotten some incredibly thoughtful answers from Rico, Bill, and the others here and I'm sure you're considering everything they're trying to help you understand. I'll go ahead and answer this question for you....
I think you're going to be pretty limited in your options being from Florida. Our Company-Sponsored Training section lists the hiring areas for the different companies but I think off the top of my head only Knight Transportation, Prime Inc, and maybe Swift Transportation hire out of Florida. Maybe Roehl Transport....I'm not sure. But there aren't many.
We get a ton of excellent feedback from people that go with all of those companies. I think Prime has the highest pay package of anyone in the trucking industry for new drivers. Roehl has some amazing home time options. Knight seems to have about the friendliest training academy from the feedback we get from there, and Swift has a ton of opportunities being one of the largest carriers in North America. You really can't go wrong with any of them. It's just a matter of figuring out which you one feel suits you the best when it comes to pay, benefits, home time, equipment, types of freight, and opportunities in other areas (dedicated, regional, other types of freight, etc). It's not a matter of picking a "good company versus a bad company". It's a matter of choosing the one you're that suits you best...the one you're going to be happiest with.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Terminal:
A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.
Regional:
Regional Route
Usually refers to a driver hauling freight within one particular region of the country. You might be in the "Southeast Regional Division" or "Midwest Regional". Regional route drivers often get home on the weekends which is one of the main appeals for this type of route.
Company-sponsored Training:
A Company-Sponsored Training Program is a school that is owned and operated by a trucking company.
The schooling often requires little or no money up front. Instead of paying up-front tuition you will sign an agreement to work for the company for a specified amount of time after graduation, usually around a year, at a slightly lower rate of pay in order to pay for the training.
If you choose to quit working for the company before your year is up, they will normally require you to pay back a prorated amount of money for the schooling. The amount you pay back will be comparable to what you would have paid if you went to an independently owned school.
Company-sponsored training can be an excellent way to get your career underway if you can't afford the tuition up front for private schooling.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.